Notes and Queries, Number 33, June 15, 1850

Excerpt

DR. WHICHCOTE, MICHAEL AYNSWORTH, AND LORD SHAFTESBURY.

Not less remarkable and interesting than the publication of Dr. Whichcote's Sermons by the noble author of the Characteristics, is a posthumous volume (though never designed for the press) under the following title:—

"Several Letters written by a Noble Lord to a Young Man at the University.

"Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu.—Hor. Epist. ii. 1.

"Printed for J. Roberts, near the Oxford Arms, in Warwick Lane, 1716. 8vo."

The young man was Michael Aynsworth, of University College, Oxford, afterwards vicar of Cornhampton, in Hampshire, and master of the Free School there. He was a native of Dorsetshire; his father, who was in narrow circumstances, living near Wimborne St. Giles's, the seat of Lord Shaftesbury, by whom the son seems to have been nobly patronised, on account of his inclination to learning and virtuous disposition.

The published letters are only ten in number; but I have an accurate manuscript transcript of fifteen, made from the originals by R. Flexman (who had been a pupil of Aynsworth) in 1768. The transcriber's account is as follows:—

"After Mr. Aynsworth's death, these letters remained in the possession of his daughter, and at her decease passed into the the hands of the Rev. Mr. Upton, the then vicar of Cornhampton; by him they were lent to my brother John Baker, of Grove Place, in Hampshire, who lent them to me. It will be perceived that the ten printed letters are not given as they were written, every thing of a private nature being omitted, and passages only given of other letters, just as the editor judged proper."

R. Flexman has made some remarks illustrative of the letters at the end of his transcript, and added some particulars relating to Lord Shaftesbury. He justly says,—

"I think these letters will show his lordship in a more favourable light with respect to the Christian religion than his Characteristics, which, though they may be condemned on that account, will ever remain a lasting monument of the genius of the noble writer. It is certain, too, the friends of Christianity are obliged to him for the publication of one of the best volumes of sermons that ever appeared in the English language. They are twelve in number, by Dr. Benjamin Whichcote. These sermons (as well as the preface, which is admirable) breathe such a noble spirit of Christianity, as I think will efface every notion that his lordship was an enemy to the Christian religion. In this preface he calls Dr. Whichcote (from his pleading in defence of natural goodness) the 'preacher of good nature.'"

What follows will, I think, be acceptable to your correspondents C H. and C. R. S.

"I have heard that the way in which Lord Shaftesbury got possession of the manuscript sermons was this:—Going one day to visit his grandmother, the Countess Dowager, widow of the first Earl, he found her reading a manuscript; on inquiring what she was reading, she replied, that it was a sermon. His lordship expressed his surprise that she should take so much trouble as to read a manuscript sermon when there were such numbers in print. She said, she could find none so good as those she had in manuscript. Lord Shaftesbury then requested the favour of being allowed to peruse it, and having done so, he inquired of the Countess if she had any more, as he should like to read them all if she had. Having received and read them, he was so much pleased, that he resolved to print them; and having them prepared for the press, he published them with a preface recommending the sermons and highly praising the author."

It appears that the sermons were prepared for the press, at Lord Shaftesbury's instance, by the Rev. William Stephens, rector of Sutton, in Surrey; but the fact of the preface being by himself rests on the undoubted evidence of his sister, Lady Betty Harris (wife of James Harris of Salisbury, the author of Hermes), who mentioned having written it from her brother's dictation, he being at that time too ill to write himself.

The letters to Michael Aynsworth are very interesting, from their benevolent, earnest, and truly pious spirit, and might even now be read with advantage by a young student of theology: but, being very severe in many places upon the greater part of the body of the clergy called the Church of England, could have been by no means palatable to the High Church party,—

"Who no more esteem themselves a Protestant Church, or in union with those of Protestant communion, though they pretend to the name of Christian, and would have us judge of the spirit of Christianity from theirs; which God prevent! lest men should in time forsake Christianity through their means."

The eleventh letter in the MS. is important on account of the observations it contains on the consequences which must inevitably arise from Locke's doctrine respecting innate ideas. Locke had been tutor both to Lord Shaftesbury and his father:—

"Mr. Locke, much as I honour him, and well as I know him, and can answer for his sincerity as a most zealous Christian believer, has espoused those principles which Mr. Hobbes set on foot in the last century, and has been followed by the Tindals and all the other free authors of our time. 'Twas Mr. Locke that struck the home blow, (for Hobbes' character and base slavish principles of government took off the poison of his philosophy), struck at all fundamentals, threw all order and virtue out of the world, and made the very ideas of these (which are the same as those of God), unnatural and without foundation in our minds."

It is remarkable that the volume of Whichcote's Sermons printed by Lord Shaftesbury should have been republished at Edinburgh in 1742, with a recommendatory epistle, by a Presbyterian divine, Dr. Wishart, principal of the College of Edinburgh. In the very neat reprint of the collected sermons given by Dr. Campbell and Dr....